Skype ousted from China?

Government crackdown on illegal voice over IP services appears to shore up state-run providers. say observers.

"China is starting off the new year by flexing its control over Voice over IP (VoIP) telephone services such as Skype. The nation's Ministry of Information and Industry Technology (MIIT) on Friday said it will crack down on "illegal VoIP telephone services," and was collecting evidence for legal cases against them. Only state-run China Mobile, China Telecom, and China Unicom will offer VoIP in this nation of about 1.3 billion people, an MIIT spokesperson told the South China Morning Post," writes Information Week's Alison Diana.

"The move will protect China's big three telecommunications giants, professor Kan Kaili of the Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications told the Morning Post. 'The regulator's mindset will never change, he said. 'The officials are obsessed with ideas on how to protect the state giants, rather than considering the interest of the masses,' " Diana writes.